and kelly ayotte. they've been conciliatory gestures on both sides the past few days. >> i do think that some of the statements he made about me have been unfounded, but i look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him. >> i give everyone the benefit of explaining their position and the actions that they took, and i'll be glad to have the opportunity to discuss these issues with her. >> in one sign of the seriousness with which the white house takes rice's defense acting cia director mike morell will accompany her on those senate meetings. remember it's mike morell who wrote the unclassified talking points from the intelligence community that rice was briefed on to use publicly for the sunday talk shows. last night on fox news graham said he intends to ask rice some very direct questions. >> she asked to meet with us, and i will listen to what she has to say about her role in benghazi. i can tell you this, the more i know about benghazi, the more upset i am that the consulate was even open on september 11. the more i look into what the

, marco rubio and kelly ayotte. nevada's dean heller was the only to win in a blue state in the 2012 cycle. he narrow will he won over shelly berkeley despite the president winning the state by six. they have a none of the above. susan collins was the only other senator on the list to face voters while president obama was on the ballot. she won her third it term in 2008. the other seven were all elected or re-elected in the big republican wave of 2010. could republicans take back some of that territory in 2014 is this joining me now political analyst and editor and publisher of the cook political report, charlie cook. charlie, we have a senate announcement today. this is happenstance. we planned this last week and we can talk about 2014 and jay rockefeller. >> at least shelly capito had the decency to wait until after thanksgiving. >> mike brown announced two weeks ago he was running in 2014. >> see, i wasn't paying attention then. >> fair enough. is this all chalked up to bad recruiting by the republicans, the success rate? >> i think what we've seen is two cycles in a row of very d